For many years it has been customary to provide curbs and/or thresholds which a person entering an area or building must step on or over. However, if the person desiring to enter is in a wheel chair or must move a wheeled cart or table into the area or building, such curbs, steps and thresholds can present a major problem. In recognition of this, the United States Congress recently passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring that public buildings be designed or modified to provide wheel chair access. The ADA is not limited to just new construction but applies to existing public and commercial buildings as well.
When designing a new building, it is relatively straight forward to avoid curbs, steps and thresholds that would block wheel chair access. But with existing buildings, the situation is more difficult. Many public buildings that must be brought into conformance with the ADA were constructed years ago without thought to providing wheel chair access. The buildings and their surrounding walk-ways and parking lots are full of curbs, steps and thresholds that makes wheel chair access difficult. In general, most of these curbs, steps and thresholds cannot be easily removed at reasonable cost. The usual fix is to provide a ramp which makes a smooth transition up to or over the curb, step or threshold. But, there is a great variety in the heights and shapes of such curbs, steps and thresholds so that almost every ramp must have different dimensions. The result is that retro-fitting existing buildings becomes extremely expensive since almost every ramp must be individually constructed at the job sight to fit the particular space in which it will be used using general purpose raw materials. With prior art approaches it is very difficult to achieve economies of scale in the manufacture and/or the installation of such retrofit ramps. Thus, there continues to exist a need for an improved ramp and method adapted to easily retrofit existing structures with ramps that comply with the ADA requirements for access by wheel chairs and/or other wheeled carts and tables.